“Yes Captain,” Keshira said, smiling brilliantly.
Dexter looked at her, studying her face and eyes. She seemed so alive, so real. He could not imagine her as artificial. “Tell me about yourself,” he asked her, hoping to find something more to support his line of thinking.
She looked at him blankly, not understanding the question. “I am your servant, Captain. Command me and I will obey. I will do anything you desire.”
Dexter sighed; this was not going well. “No, that’s not what I desire. I want you to tell me about yourself. Where were you born…er, created. When? How? Have you any friends or family…or, um, others like you? Anyone you’re close with?”
“I knew nothing until I awoke and saw you. That was all that was needed to form my bond. I do know how to do many things, all of them designed to make your life easier and more pleasurable,” she said. “Some things I require your permission to use.”
“What? What things?” Dexter asked, surprised.
“I am unable to use my powers until you approve their use,” she said.
“Powers? Like what?” Dexter had a feeling he had just unraveled more of Jarnella’s allure.
“Minor glamours and cantrips.”
Dexter found himself rubbing his chin thoughtfully, then realized that he was starting to act like Kragor. He shook his head and dropped his hand. “Show me an example, please.”
Keshira beamed, pleased to finally be given an order to complete by him. It looked as though a gust of wind blew over her face, for her hair bounced and flowed, swayed by unseen and unfelt currents. Dexter gasped when he realized that she suddenly looked even more alluring and sexy than she had when she had first come out of the crate.
He nodded, feeling he had put the final nail in the coffin to explaining how Jarnella had been so wonderfully arousing. This woman, or thing, in front of him was very much the same. The difference being that she insisted that she belonged to him.
“What sort of loyalty do you feel you owe me?” Dexter asked, wondering just how dangerous she and others like her truly were.
“I do not understand, Captain. I am your servant. Anything you bid me do I will do.”
“Anything?” Dexter asked, rhetorically.
“Yes, what would you like of me, Captain?” She said, not understanding that his question was for his own benefit.
“No, I mean… well, I don’t know what I mean,” Dexter said, then stared up at the stars passing slowly over the ships deck. “Keshira, you are a beautiful…thing. I want to call you a woman but I cannot if it is true that you are not human or even alive. Do you need to eat or drink or breathe?”
“Yes, Captain, I must do all of those things,” she responded. “My body is resilient but it can be damaged and it will heal. It is alive, Captain, so I do not understand why you say that I am not. Touch me, Sir, and you will find that I am warm and very much alive.”
Dexter was tempted to touch her, but he just smiled regretfully instead. “Thank you, Keshira, but I will never take something not freely given.”
“I do not understand, Captain. I am yours. I give myself to you at any and all times in any way that you would have me.”
Dexter cursed. “That’s not what I mean. Aye, you’re alive, but you’ve no soul, no spirit, you said yourself you exist to serve me. That’s not giving, lass, that’s taking.”
“I do not understand,” she said, standing tall and beautiful on the deck in front of him and looking serenely at him.
Dexter nodded sadly. “I know, that’s the problem. All I’m wanting of you is that you know who you are and why you want what you do. I want you to have your own wants, your own desires, your own goals.” He sighed and looked at her. “I’m wanting you to be your own person, owned not by me nor any other man nor woman.”
Dexter was amazed when he saw a sad expression cross Keshira’s face. “I… I am sorry, Captain. I cannot do that. You are my Master, it can only be undone if I cease to exist.”
Dexter was sorely tempted to take the girl in his arms, but he refrained, knowing it would do neither of them any good. “Is your sadness real, or just how you’ve been made to feel?”
“I do not understand, Captain.”
Dexter sighed and waved his hand dismissively. “No matter,” he said. In truth it was, but then again, could he say that his emotions were any less real because he, too, had been made to feel them simply by being human.
“It may be no concern to you, Keshira, but I promise you that I’ll do what I can to see you set free to live a full life. The wizard that made you will answer to me or I’ll die trying.”
Keshira smiled. “Captain, I do not understand why you would do such a thing, I belong to you.”
Dexter chuckled. “That’s okay, Keshira, I’m for hoping that one day you’ll know.”
“If that pleases you, I shall try to understand, Captain,” she said, bowing obediently to him.
“Go ahead back to work,” Dexter said, dismissing her. Smiling happily at having a task from him, she returned to her place working on the decking.
Dexter watched her work for a while, thinking about her plight, or his plight, as he considered it, and wondered what Port Freedom would bring. He turned back around in time to feel the ship decelerating out of cruising speed. There, ahead some distance, loomed the moon sized planetoid that Port Freedom called home. Dexter took a deep breath and headed to his cabin to ready himself for what was sure to be an eventful confrontation.
Kragor and Jodyne stayed at the ship, keeping it ready to go just in case a hasty departure was necessary. All manner of ideas passed through Dexter’s mind, but he really had no plan for how it was going to work out.
Keshira trailed along behind him and Rosh walked beside her armed for war with multiple weapons and even a chain shirt over his leather sleeves and leggings. Bekka trailed behind them, watching everything with a keen eye.
Jenna was along for the walk as well, making it officially the most time she had spent with Dexter since Keshira had joined them. She took up the rear guard of their small procession, also wearing her full battle garb.
“This could sour fast,” Dexter said after he came to a stop a block away from the wizard’s large house. “Anyone that’s not for wanting the risk can go back to the ‘Hawk right now.”
Nobody spoke up or moved to leave, filling Dexter with a sense of pride at his crew. “Alright, Kragor gets the ‘Hawk if I go down, so treat him right.”
A few of them shuffled uneasily. They were not bothered by the thought of answering to the dwarf as Captain, but rather the thought of surviving an encounter that he fell in sat poorly with them.
Dexter turned and resumed his march, with the rest of them falling in behind him.
They were greeted at the door by Jarnella. She beamed at Dexter happily, then saw Keshira standing behind him and her expression darkened somewhat. “My Master will be displeased to see her return,” she said.
“About that,” Dexter said. “It was unavoidable. I’d like for him to break the bond she made so we can done with this.”
“There is no breaking the bond. She is made to be a servant for life,” Jarnella explained, turning and beckoning them inside the house.
They followed her in, each looking about nervously in case of a trap. Only Keshira seemed at ease as they moved through a foyer, then down a hallway and through a sitting room. Jarnella opened the doors to a large study, where Ormitor sat waiting in a plush chair.
“Have you any idea what you have done?” he asked, his tone one of irritation.
“I know only that I damn near lost my ship, my crew, and my freedom carrying your ‘product’.” As soon as the words left his mouth he realized he may have been a bit too aggressive.
“I want no part of your gold or business,” he continued, softening his tone slightly. “Undo this bond she speaks of and free her, then we may go our separate ways.”
Ormitor rose up and walked over to them. He looked at Keshira with a critical eye, noting everything from her posture, her look, and the same blue dress she had risen from the crate in. “The manufacturing and ensorceling of a pleasure golem is no simple task. The materials alone are far beyond your ability to comprehend!”